Preschool: Visual Discrimination
“Green, yellow, orange… green, yellow, orange,” a child whispered to herself as she carefully placed each bead on a pipe cleaner. The afternoon enrichment project that day was making autumn colored bead bracelets. The children enjoyed picking out the colorful beads and participating in a fun fine motor activity. When a teacher presented the project, she encouraged the children to try to make a pattern if they wished. Patterning is an excellent activity for enhancing the child’s visual discrimination skills.
Throughout the Montessori classroom, there are many other activities, which help the child develop her visual discrimination skills. The ability to discern subtle differences in visual stimuli develops over time and with practice. Sensorial materials such as the pink cubes and the red rods help the child distinguish between largest to smallest and longest to shortest. Many of the sets baskets in math require the child to order the numerals and sort the materials before counting. In the language area, there are many patterning and sequencing materials available. These engaging materials help the child prepare for reading and writing letters and numerals.
